When an electrical interconnection is desired between all of the respective contact lengths (e.g., for grounding purposes), the interconnection is obtained by means of a metal plate (referred to as the ground plate) which is pierced by holes each having a contact passing therethrough. Each hole is lined by a plurality of spring blades that are pushed away from the face of the plate and that define a passage that is narrower than the diameter of the contact: these lips thus bear resiliently against the contact length where it passes through the hole.
That solution has the advantage of being easy to manufacture since the plate is obtained by a cutting out and embossing operation which is cheap.
However, that solution suffers from a significant drawback relating to the fact that the blades that are curved in the contact insertion direction (generally from the back towards the front) of the supporting insulating body bear resiliently against the contact-like catches that tend to prevent the contact from being withdrawn from the insulating body (generally from the front towards the back). When it is necessary to extract a contact (e.g., in order to replace it), such extraction gives rise to irreversible deformation, thereby irremediably damaging the lip blades, thus requiring the plate to be replaced as well since it has become unusable. Consequently, withdrawing a single contact requires all of the contacts to be disassembled and the grounding plate to be replaced with all of the contacts then being reassembled, which operation is lengthy, cumbersome, and expensive.